Quote of The Week

"Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They're about to announce the lottery numbers." - Homer Simpson

Says something about our society doesn't it?

A Rap through the Bible

With today being the last day of my class Teaching the Bible to Youth and Adults, our professor Duffy Robbins decided to rap the books of the Bible for us. Unfortunately we were only able to get from Esther on, but It's still pretty stinkin' hilarious. Now if only my other Fuller professors would teach this way.

a shout out to my classmate Todd for capturing this on video!

An Important Lesson From a Burning Bush

For those of you who don't know, I'm in the second week of a two week class called Teaching the Bible to Youth and Adults. It's been an amazing class and wish it could be a five week or even better a ten week class. Anyways, One of the assignments was to create a Bible lesson and present it to the class.

Today one of my classmates was teaching on Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3:11-13). Though I've heard this story taught many times, something popped out at me today. Maybe it was because I felt invested playing the burning bush (just another excuse to use the words "I'm hott) in the enactment of the story, or maybe the two cups of coffee I had this morning.

But, in verse 11, Moses asks God one important question "Who am I that you should choose me to do this?" (that's a paraphrase of course). But instead of saying "well Moses, because of your beard, your outstanding leadership skills, and your ability to talk to burning bushes", God answered in a very surprising way "I will be with you". That's it!

This compelled me, maybe because I've been thinking a lot about why I'm called to Youth Ministry and the fact that I have to start looking for a full-time job soon. To see Moses question his gifts and abilities, for Moses to question where he was in life is so very human. We second guess ourselves (I can't even count the number of times I've done this during this last week), we question our abilities and what where doing. We believe that we must have all the skills and be as good as the other guy (or gal) in what we do. But instead of God comforting us with words, he just asks that we follow him and we let him lead in what we are doing.

I believe that when we follow Jesus in our lives, even though we might be second guessing ourselves, God will from time to time give us the encouragement and confidence we need to continue on (though those words might be few and far between). Thanks Mo for reminding me that we are human and will ask the question "why me?". I'm sure glad I follow a God who says, "Don't worry about why, just follow me."

Amazing Inventions: Flannelgraphs

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid the main way to teach a Bible story was to pull out the flannelgraph. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, here's a definition:

Flannelgraph (sometimes called a flannel board) is a storytelling system that uses a board covered with fabric, usually resting on an easel. The flannel board is usually painted to depict a background scene appropriate to the story being told. Paper cutouts of characters and objects in the story are then placed on the board, and moved around, as the story unfolds. These cutouts are backed, either with flannel, or with some other substance that adheres lightly to the flannel background, such as coarse sandpaper. Thanks Wikipedia!

I don't know how many Bible stories I have learned by use of a flannelgraph, but I can tell I still have images in my head of flannel Jesus turning water into wine.

But now with all the high tech media that's out there, the days of the flannelgraph are gone. Well, at least that's what I thought until the other day when lo, and behold I was shown a video of animated flannel characters telling Bible stories. I was so excited to know that the Bible teaching method of my childhood hasen't completely died, but instead given a 21st century upgrade.